I want you to hear how a twentieth century Russian raised the question of what it means to be a Jew. It was not written with hostility to Jews, but with sympathetic perplexity about what it means to be a Jew in the modern world.

"It's so strange that these people who once liberated mankind from the yoke of idolatry, and so many of whom now devote themselves to its liberation from injustice, should be incapable of liberating theselves from their loyalty to an obsolete, antediluvian identity that has lost all meaning, that they should not rise above themselves and dissolve among all the rest whose religioun they have founded and who would be so close to them, if they knew them better," (Pasternak, Doctor Zhivago, 300).

The terrible divide that separates Christianity and Judaism today did not begin as a result of anti-Semitism or of Gentile brilliance. It began with devout Jews, followers of Jesus of Nazareth, who wanted to liberated Judaism from its "loyalty to an obsolete ... identity." No Jew in the first century combined fidelity to Judaism with a desire to give it a new identity better than the Apostle Paul. We can see some of his radical convictions unfold in Romans two. Le's review his thought in verses 1-11, and then, building on that foundation, let's move on to his convictions about Judaism that quite literally changed the world, even though they had mixed reviews among Jews then and now.

In Romans 2:1-11 we considered moral smugness, moral realism, and the judgment of God. It is easy for people of high standards to see the world of Romans one and say, "Thank God I am not like that." It is easy to congratulate yourself for not being part of the mess people have made of their lives. That is the moral smugness the apostle challengees.

He challenged it first with a dose of moral realism, namely, the inconsistencies between having high moral standards and actually living up to them. He was saying that people with high moral standards are right to be disgusted by the moral low life around them, but are just wrong to think they have escaped it. Their standards are high and rightly so, and by their own standards the fail.

The apostle also challenged moral smugness with the judgment of God, which he said was restrained, realistic, and absolutely fair. The apostle has laid down two principles of divine judgment. First, He looks for a person's persistence in doing good. It is not just doing good on Sunday. It is not just doing good when someone is looking over your shoulder. It is not just doing good when it is convenient or when it feels good. It is a persistent pursuit of goodness.

The second standard really takes your breath away. God measures us by our motivation for doing good. Eternal life, says the apostle, is not simply for those who do good. It is for those who do good in order to seek the glory, honor and immortality that only God can give, (see Parrett, Romans, 46).

Now, in verses 12-29 he challenges moral smugness by raising the volatile issure of what it means to be a Jew. He develops this challenge in stages. In verses 12-16 he points to gentile obedience to the Jewish law. In verses 17-24 he points to Jewish disobedience to the Jewish law. Finally, in verses 25-29 he draws conclusions about Jewish identity.

Before we start with verses 12-16, you might keep something in mind that will help us understand the rest of chapter two. Many Jewish Christians disagreed sharply with Paul, because he did not require gentile Christians to submit to Jewish rituals such as circumcision and Sabbath observance. He allowed them to enter the Church through faith in Jesus Christ alone. I believe Paul was speaking directly to those Jewish Christians in the verses we read today. Let's start with verse 11.

Gentile Obedience to Jewish Law
For God does not show favoritism. Paul the Jew is saying that being a Jew will not be an advantage when God renders judgment. That was not always well-received in the synagogues or the Jewish Christian congregations of the Roman Empire. Paul now set forth his understanding of God's impartiality.

First, in verse 12, All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law. God is absolutely fair. Gentiles who do not have the Jewish law will be judged by their failure to live up to their own standards. Jews will be judged by their failure to live up to Jewish law.

In verse 13 he clarifies the standard by which Jews would be judged and reminds his audience of the principle that high-minded moral people tend to forget. For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God's sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous. Having the Ten Commandments does not make you righteous any more than having a recipe satisfies your hunger. Idealists of every kind need to be told over and over that God measures by deeds, not by words; by deeds, not by privilege, not even the privilege of being God's chosen people.

Now comes the shocker. Verses 14-15 tell where the Gentiles get the standards they will be judged by. (Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the (Jewish) law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law, since they show that the requirements of the (Jewish) law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them.)

When the apostle says of Gentiles that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, he does not deny Israel's unique privilege as God's chosen, but he puts it in a new perspective. God has not forgotten the Gentile world and has in fact given to that world a revelation of His will that in many ways is just as clear to Gentiles as the Ten Commandments are to Jews, and many Gentiles obey that revelation.

As a result, he says in verse 16, the confirmation of this reality will take place on the day when God will judge men's secrets through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares. Beginning in verse 17, the apostle contrasts the surprising truth of Gentile obedience to Jewish law with surprising truth of Jewish disobedience to Jewish law. He begins in verses 17-20 with a litany of privileges, which he (at one time) and his fellow Jews saw as setting them above the rest of humanity.

Jewish Disobedience to Jewish Law
Now you, if you call yourself a Jew; it you rely on the law and brag about your relationship to God; if you know his will and approve of what is superior because you are instructed by the law; if you are convinced that you are a guide for the blind, a light for those who are in the dark, an instructor of the foolish , a teacher of infants, because you have in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth ...

"Well, what do you mean, 'if?' Yes, we do so rely and brag and know and approve and are instructed and are convinced. We do have in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth." Paul knew from the inside exactly what kind of response he would get. He has set up the question of verse 21 with great cunning. You, then, who teach others, do you not teach yourself? What follows in verses 21-23 is a specific application of the principle Paul laid down in verse one: For at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. Listen.

You who preach against stealing, do you steal? You who say that people should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who brag about the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law? The apostle was not saying that every Jew committed all the sins he had listed in chapter one. The more complex reality is that the pagans themselvees whose life he described in chapter one did not each commit every act of evil listed there. His point is that even among Jews, who look down disapprovingly on the moral low life around them, you could find just about everyone of those acts of evil. Skeletons, says the apostle, reside in the finest closets, including fine Jewish closets.

Paul's concern for Israel was not new. His strong language echoed that of Isaiah 52 and Ezekiel 36. In verse 24 he quotes from Isaiah 52:7. As it is written: "God's name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you." However, a deeper issue is at work. What does this dishonorable conduct imply about Israel's identity?

Jewish Identity
He struck at the heart of Judaism by what he said next. Circumcision has value if you observe the law, but if you break the law, you have become as though you had not been circumcised. If those who are not circumcised keep the law's requirements, will they not be regarded as though they were circumcised? To hear this with Jewish ears means to hear an attack on the identity of Jewish people.

What was at stake was the boundary that separated Israel from the surrounding Gentile world. In a world where pagan culture constantly chipped away at the distinctiveness of God's chosen people, how could a Jew show himself faithful and loyal to Israel's unique calling? One answer to that question was the practice of circumcision. But Paul seems to dismiss that as an irrelevance. He even seems willing to put more obedient Gentiles on an even footing with Jews. To hear verse 27 tell it, he even seems willing to put more obedient Gentiles above Jews.

The one who is not circumcised physically and yet obeys the law will condemn you who, even though you have the written code and circumcision, are a lawbreaker. I don't know how normal Jewish ears could hear this and not think of Paul as a traitor to Judaism. As chapters 9-11 will make abundantly clear, he believed that all the Jewish distinctives were in force forever, but he had come to a new understanding of what it means to be a Jew, and he intended to follow it, wherever it might lead him and whatever it might cost him. Verses 28-29 provide a clue to his radical understanding.

A man is not a Jew if he is only one outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a man's praise is not from men, but from God. 

In one respect Paul's words were 600 years old. The great prophet, Jeremiah, had written, This is what the LORD says to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem: "Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, circumcise your hearts, you men of Judah and people of Jerusalem, or my wrath will break out and burn like fire because of the evil you have done - burn with no one to quench it."

Both apostle and prophet are saying, "Don't just talk the talk. You've got to walk the walk." "Pretty is as pretty does." "What you do speaks so loud I can't hear what you say." It is a common theme among all people who don't like hypocrisy. What sets the Apostle Paul apaart even from Jeremiah is his application of this idea. You can hear it over and over in today's text.

It is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God's sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous.

If those who are not circumcised keep the law's requirements, will they not be regarded as though they were circumcised, as though they were the real Jews?

The one who is not circumcised physically and yet obeys the law will condemn you who, even though you have the written code and circumcision, are a lawbreaker.

A man is a Jew if he is one winwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code.

This is what he means. This is the application of Jeremiah's words that made him such a threat to so many of his fellow Jews. He is saying, "A true Jew is not one who uses his religious heritage to separate himself from everyone else in the world. A true Jew is one whose obedience to God serves as a model for everyone else in the world. A true Jew is one whose obedience to God serves as a model for everyone else in the world, and that could be just as true of a gentile as a Jew. Judaism served as a model for the rest of the world, not because of its rituals but because of its obedient devotion to the one true God."

What does all this mean to us? Listen to Genesis 12:3 which states the Jewish mission in the world. "All peoples on earth will be blessed through you." "That," said the Apostle Paul, "is what it means to be a Jew. And how are you going to do that, if all you care about is being distinct from everyone else?" Now listen to this Jewish statement about Christians.

"Before the rise of Christianity, Jews were the only worshippers of the God of Israel. But Christians also worship the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; creator of heaven and earth. While Christian worship is not a viable religious choice for Jews, as Jewish theologians we rejoice that, through Christianity, hundreds of millions of people have entered into relationship with the God of Israel," ("Dabru Emet," The Sun, Sunday, Sept. 10, 2000).

Doesn't that magnificent statement mean that the Church is fulfilling the calling of Israel as expressed to Abraham in a way undreamed of by Israel? If the Church is the instrument by which "hundreds of millions of people have entered into relationship with the God of Israel," can we Christians not in some sense be counted as spiritual Jews, as the Apostle said in Romans two? Are not Church and Synagogue in a mystery yoked together in a way that belies the hostility of some Jews toward Christianity on one hand and on the other the terrible treatment of Jews by some Christians down the centuries? Might we be living in a new age of deep respect and even deeper union? Might Jesus Christ once again be on our mutual agenda?

Second, reread verses 17-20. Now you, if you call yoruself a Christian; if you rely on Jesus Christ and brag about your relationship to God; if you know his will and approve of what is superior because you are instructed by the New Testatment; if you are convinced that you are a guide for the blind, a light for those who are in the dark, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of infants, because you have in the Mew Testament the embodiment of knowledge and truth ... 

What do you mean, "If?" We Christians do all those things. I saw without apology that God has entrusted to the Church something that ever human being on the planet needs as much as food, water and rest. But we have to remember something. The apostle said it best in 2 Corinthians 4:6-7. For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.

We are jars of clay, flawed and fragile. If we ever forget this and become morally smug about ourselves, I fear that God will take from us this treasure and entrust it to someone else. I don't want that. I hope you don't want that. We have what the whole world needs. It is what we need too, and nothing denies that fact more than a smug self-righteousness. Let us bear the treasure remembering our frailty and ask for God's strength to bear it well.